Time – The Ultimate Resource

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Since the dawn of the human era on the blue planet, man has always been fighting. Be it for resources, religion, power or the innumerable other petty things which don’t even make it to this list. Little has he realised, when time is not on your side, even the mighty predators like dinosaurs become a part of history. Man, nowadays, likes to believe that with technology on his side he can defy the odds. He thinks that earth was made especially for him to survive and grow. But if we compress the entire time passed till date to a period of 24 hours, the whole human generation stands at a measly 2 seconds and yet he chooses to think otherwise.

Man has evolved from a monkey and so has his perception. In his earlier form, food was the resource worth fighting for, now it’s money. He knows that if not the best, it can buy you second best & thus his greed for money remains insatiable. Ignoring the pressing forces of time in the form of natural calamities, warning bells before the big storm. If he continues to ignore the signs, a day will come when he will not be able to enjoy his physical wealth.

Time cannot be saved as money, once gone it doesn’t come back. This makes it even more critical responsibility of man to invest time with due diligence. As rightly said by Eleanor Roosevelt – “Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again”. One can always calculate the time value of money but not the other way round. It highlights the fact that even money is bound by power of time. This raises a question in everybody’s mind; “How to invest time so that you get the maximum out of it”.

To answer the above question we need to understand that unlike other things time is transient and so it can’t be contained. Every moment one spends breathing, he is exploiting time for better or for worse. Time is priceless but without quality it becomes worthless. The greatest achievers have one thing common, they keep time at the highest pedestal and use it effectively for their work. We use up our time in anger, resentment, bitterness or envy and end up with nothing to show for it. While they put that time for positive, thoughtful and productive efforts that fetch them valuable rewards and invaluable success. For them real wealth is the unhurried sense of time which helps them to work in peace. It is the efficient use of time which distinguishes a successful man from an unsuccessful one.

You know how valuable or invaluable time is, but how do we utilize it to the fullest. Basically, a balance between work, rest and enjoyment wherein one of them is not disturbed by other two is the most desirable state. Everyone is busy in thinking ahead and thus while doing one task keeps on thinking about the other one. This reduces your efficiency and in return takes more of your time. Even if you are enjoying, you should do it with full concentration as it will rejuvenate you and help you in work later. Even the great Aristotle knew its importance and hence asked his students to play a sport before coming to his classes.

So, what should be done? First and the foremost, people should stop procrastinating work. When you procrastinate, you waste the time allotted for that work and you have to allocate time for the same work in future. Not only this, it also stays at the back of one’s mind as it is an unfinished task. Secondly, while devising a routine, optimum level of rest and enjoyment should be fit in between working and not the other way round. Also keep in mind that time is moving at its pace, so instead of celebrating or mourning too much, one should focus on the next task at hand. The day every individual present on this planet irrespective of everything starts to fully utilize his/her time is the day when man will evolve into even better form.